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Medical practice requires physicians to have a broad understanding of the basic sciences, have competent clinical skills, and have an ability to practice in evolving health systems in a cost-effective and evidence-based manner. Essential to the practice of medicine is an understanding of the common laboratory tests and the ability to use them effectively. The Essential Laboratory Tests for Medical Education (ELTME) is a concise document explaining the pathophysiology of common laboratory tests and clinical context for each test and was developed in response to an expressed need from medical students, residents and fellows, and medical educators. The ELTME is linked to the Pathology Competencies in Medical Education and its third competency of diagnostic medicine and therapeutic pathology. The ELTME table is a document of common laboratory tests in alphabetical listing. Laboratory tests may be easily queried by name or organ system, and with simple editing tools, new tables may be constructed to fit the needs of individual curricula or learners. Furthermore, the table may be easily expanded by educators who wish to add specific tests to complement their curricula.

To understand the increase in age-related incidence and frequency of absence seizures in the rat brain, we investigated the effect of these seizures on brain dynamics. This paper puts forward the hypothesis that age-related differences in the expression of absence seizures are associated with the ability of the seizures to reset brain dynamics.

Gynandroblastoma is an extremely rare primary tumor of the ovary showing morphological evidence of both female (granulosa cell tumor) and male (Sertoli or Sertoli–Leydig tumor) differentiation. We report an unusual case of a 32-year-old female who presented with hyperandrogenism and was found on imaging to have concurrent ovarian and renal masses. Following surgical excision, the ovarian mass was diagnosed as gynandroblastoma, which consisted of 45% juvenile granulosa cell tumor and 55% intermediately differentiated Sertoli–Leydig tumor. The renal mass was diagnosed as a conventional renal clear cell carcinoma. Gynandroblastoma, especially with juvenile granulosa cell tumor, is an extremely rare ovarian tumor. Concurrent gynandroblastoma with another malignant neoplasm has not been reported in the literature.

We report a 61-year-old man with intracranial multiple myeloma (MM) presenting as a posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) following a kidney transplant. Two months after his transplant, the man developed acute rejection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) viremia, requiring aggressive immunosuppression. Twenty months following transplantation, the patient presented with multiple neurologic deficits. Imaging revealed numerous lytic lesions in the skull, most conspicuously a 4.1cm right frontal skull mass with prominent intracranial extension. Histologic sections of the frontal bone lesion showed sheets of atypical plasma cells that were positive for CD138 and kappa immunoglobulin light chains. Chromogenic in situ hybridization for EBV-encoded small RNA was also positive. Plasma cell neoplasms, either as MM or a plasmacytoma, are one of the least common forms of PTLD, and their rarity limits the possibility of major studies to detail their behavior. Most often seen after renal transplantation, the majority are EBV-driven, similarly to other PTLD. While studies have demonstrated several risk factors, behavior and optimal management of PTLD plasma cell neoplasms are unknown. Plasma cell neoplasms affect the nervous system in a variety of ways but rarely via intracranial disease. MM usually presents initially with several classic signs and symptoms, but our patient's presentation was typical of a localized brain tumor with generalized and focal gross neurologic defects.

Although tethering of the spinal cord in the lumbosacral region, particularly following repair of congenital anomalies, such as myelomeningocele, is a well-known phenomenon, only sporadic reports of tethering along the rest of the neuraxis, including the hindbrain, cervical and thoracic spinal cord have been documented. In this report, we describe a woman who developed symptoms related to tethering of the cervical spinal cord 5 years after suboccipital decompressive surgery of the posterior fossa for Chiari I malformation. The authors discuss the diagnosis, treatment, and postoperative course of this entity.